Pocket Pixels: Zoo Fight

Who will be King of the Zoo?

In gaming days of old, there seemed to be no end to what developers could come up with as a basis for a new way to kill some time. And when they couldn't create a game revolving around humans playing sports, saving the world, or destroying aliens in space, they could always turn to the animal kingdom for inspiration. Such was the case in 1985 when Ascii Corporation came out with a little ditty on the Famicom and MSX known as Penguin-Kun Wars. The game centered on choosing one of several animal characters to fight it out using dodge balls in a small arena. A somewhat unique idea at the time, there was no other game out there quite like it. It's hard to determine how well it did on Japan since it mostly slipped under the radar and never made it to America. But it would be reasonable to assume it found a wide enough audience in its home market. With the game being simple in nature, Ascii saw fit to release the game in pocket sized form on the popular Game Boy system in 1990. But this time, it saw life in the US, as well Europe and Japan. For the American audience, the name was changed simply to "Penguin Wars", but otherwise not much else had changed about the game. Being more of an extension of the original game than it was an actual sequel, Penguin Wars wasn't one of the more impressive Game Boy title around. But despite that, it's hard to deny the fun that can be had when you see two animals bean each other in the face with a dodge ball.

What I find interesting about Penguin Wars is the lack of animal representation in the game's own title. I mean, considering the fact that you have a character selection that goes well beyond just a penguin, you'd think they would have given the game a slightly more universal name like "Animal Wars" or "Skirmish Involving Mammals and a Non-Mammal". But mass animal misrepresentation in the title or not, Penguin Wars features a modest assortment of animals battling it out in a game that amounts to equal parts dodge ball, air hockey, and hot potato. In other words, the object of the game is threefold. First of all, you face-off against your opponent by throwing dodge ball-like objects across the table. The main goal is to have the least amount of dodge balls on your side when the timer runs out. Secondly, part of the main strategy involved is to hit the other animal with a ball and stun him. That way, assuming you successfully barrage him with a few hits, you can send the rest of your arsenal on the opposite side of the table and end the match early. And finally, provided that the match lasts long enough, one of several varieties of objects will move from side-to-side in the middle of the table. They function as a small blockade that can deflect a thrown ball which adds an element of unpredictability to the game.

As can be expected, every character has their strengths and weaknesses. Interestingly, there are no visible stats of the characters within the game itself, but you can pretty much tell how strong or weak each animal is by their size. For instance, the Rat can move quickly, but is an open target should he get hit; whereas the cow can recover quickly from hits, but is slower than the other contestants. The penguin, being the star character, is the "balanced" player. Each character also has ability to launch a charged throw by holding the “A” button for a second or two when you have a ball in hand (or hoof, or wing, or paw, or flipper). It can be super effective in knocking down your opponent long enough deplete your cache of dodge balls over to his side. But it can also be your worst nightmare if your adversary hit you with a charged ball as well. From what I can tell, it's much easier for them to land such a hit on you than it is for you get a good shot at them.

Unfortunately, this main aspect of the gameplay mechanics is also the worst in practical execution. This especially shows up when you start doing repeated matches after winning the game once. On the second go-round, your opponents are miraculously able to throw multiple charged shots with deadly accuracy. So if you get hit just one time, your chances of being able to recover fast enough to tip the battle in your favor are slim-to-none. To add insult to injury, you can also inadvertently get hit by a wayward ball rebounding from your end of the table. Since an inbound ball bounces off the wall behind you before coming to a complete stop, it forces you to have to maneuver between the ball thrown at you as well as the ones behind you. It often proves to be nearly impossible especially if there are numerous dodge balls ricocheting all over the table. I found it to be downright irritating since the game's difficulty can become quite merciless very quickly.

The game's visual quality is pretty average. Like many other early Game Boy games, it's a downgraded version of the Famicom original (the only new gameplay addition being the charged throw). Besides the two competing characters, the dodge ball, and the table they're being thrown across, there’s not much to see to make the game look a little more interesting. It would have been nice if the on-looking animal audience seen in Famicom version could have made it to the Game Boy port. Sure, the characters and playing field would have to be reduced a bit, but adding the crowd would have made the graphics a little less bland. For what it's worth though, the characters themselves are well drawn and look fairly impressive for an early Game Boy title. Some comedic value is added anytime you compete against the rat. If you hit him, the words "Help! Give up!" appear above his head, as if he expects you to have mercy on him. It would have been even better if every character had a similar individual quip.

There's not much to write home about regarding the audio aspect. There are only two main tunes for the game. You have one song for the main match and one tune for the bonus rounds. Even so, what is there works well enough for the game. After all, there are only 4 matches per game, and they're all relatively short. So it's no real loss when you think about it. Same goes for the minimal sound effects in the game too. There's not much feast your ears on, but it's still suits the simplicity of the game.

While there are worse Game Boy games out there, Penguin Wars could have used a few improvements before it was released. The fickle difficulty manifesting itself with your opponents getting the unfair advantage easily becomes a thorn in the side after a couple of lost matches. The barren, clinical look doesn't quite fit within the context of the competitive nature of the game. However, those looking for a simple game to help pass the time might find something to like. Just don't expect to come away refreshed every time.

Comments (35)

WTF?

That game there is very weird. My friend Maurice was the only kid on the block that had a Gameboy- what I liked to play most back in the day was Motocross Maniacs. My god! that game was dope!- (lol) I had to even bring back the old late 80's early 90's slang... Motocross Maniacs got it goin on... yeah that game is hype!

Never played it

To start, great review as always. I always wanted the game due to the ads and previews in GamePro. I finally bought it a few years back before GameStop finally axed their original Game Boy merchandise.

That Gator

Dude, I have Revenge of the Gator too! Reading your thoughts about it makes me want to play it again. I never really got into the game that much because I guess I just did appreciate it that much. But I never traded it for anything else. Glad you reminded me to give it another go.

Never played Penguin Wars...

But when I had a gameboy (I gave it to my nephew) I had two cartridges for it. One was Tetris, the other, Marble Madness. I was really impressed they could get those kind of graphics from greyscale pixels.

interest it

My cousin had this one!

We used to love playing this game. The flailing animations when the characters got hit were hilarious to watch and my cousin loved to bean the dog that ran back and forth during the bonus rounds. I think it got replaced by a disk in later bonus rounds. The music during the matches is probably what I remember most about the game besides the flailing. Thanks for the blog post!

Marble Madness

@ chump_49: Yeah, the developers did a great job showing what the Game Boy could really do once they started getting creative with the hardware. I never played Marble Madness on it, but I do have the arcade game on Midway Arcade Tresures.

@ louboutin: Cool. Maybe you might like it more than I did. Thanks for giving this a read!

@ JewUnit: Thank man. I do enjoy review somewhat obscure games like one because I always hope to hear at least one person who had played it back in the day. I know to good feeling you get when a game that got little attention appears in a recent article of some sort.

pretty strange?

I'm sure it goes for cheap, I myself have been looking for all of the Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle games released here in the states...I dont know why they get such a bad rep, they're pretty fun when you sit down & play through them...

What with all the penguins?

@ nsonic79: A few weeks ago, I was wondering why penguins have been chosen quite often to be put in the lime light for that few years. I mean, you have March of the Penguins, Happy Feet, and those peguins from the Madagascar movies.

And appearently, peguins must have been important back in the 80's too because Konami featured a penguins as the main character in Arctic Adventure and Binary Land. Then we have Penguin Wars. I wonder why people like penguins so much? Not that I'm beefing about it.

@ quarterman: If you're looking for little quirky titles, the Game Boy is a great place to look. It's small size made it the perfect platform to creat such games.

@ joeyshighscorebleeds: I heard that Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle wasn't all that bad. But you know what I would love to play on the Ga,e Boy right now? Snoopy's Magic show. That game was soooo fun back in the day.

@ DaMan01: It seemed like it was going to be really fun at first, but after playing it for some time, it really started to get on my nerves. Still, I'm sure this will appeal to a small group of gamers out there. Maybe.

@ chambos: Back then, we were forbidden by our parents from playing games like Doom and Castle Wolfenstein. I probably would have loved this game at the time. That's kinda funny.

Emulation

Of course I never heard of it. It makes me wonder though when Nintendo will go the route of PSN and the PSPGo since Nintendo is rich in handheld titles that would be good to download. I believe the whole market will end up going that way and we will eventually see the end of backward compatibility. That is actually kind of in reference to your last blog in why I think party why Sony got rid of the emulator in the 60 gig PS3. They can make money off titles people would purchase through their service more than the system being wholey backward compatitlbe. Anyway, funnny little title there. I like reading about titles from you that I never of before.

Get un-stumped

@ Naked BoB: Well what are you waiting for Bob? You're a collector...go out and get yourself a copy of Penguin Wars, yo!

@ Xcite79: In a way, that's what scares me. I appreaciate what services like the Virtual Console does for classic games and all, but it onlt represents a fraction of what's out there. In other words, while we'll always have Super Mario this-and-that and other well-known (and the occassional not-so well known) games, we probably won't see Blaster Master, Kickle Kubicle, or Sparkster.

Conversly, while I suppose it's possible that Sony and Nintendo could start making PS2 and Game Boy games downloadable, There would be so many other games that I would miss out on because they would never see the light of day. But I'm not about to get on a soap box about it though. Those companies have to do what's best for them financially.

Sounds like a real suck-fest to me...

- I hate games that conspire against you in a way that severely pisses you off. Which may have something to do with the obscurity of such games, unless they're licensed titles or, of course, made by Nintendo with Nintendo's own characters.

Case in point: Mario Power Tennis. That game pissed me off SO bad with its ultra-cheap power moves, especially for that little bastard Diddy Kong (who wouldn't be such a bastard without the power move. Hmm...a paradox, perhaps?). Every frickin' time I played against him in tournament mode, he waxed me like a surfboard. It was enough to make me hate the game, which is ironic considering the fact that I absolutely ADORED the N64 version (no power moves there!). I even won a t-shirt from a contest of skill involving the original. Oh, how bitter the taste when they "upgraded" the game..

- It's funny/weird (judging from that screenshot, at least) how the cow looks no bigger than any of the other animals...

- Ah, ricochets. The pinnacle of embarrassment and humiliation in the world of sports, gym or otherwise. Got to give 'em props for accuracy there, though, since that shit also counts in real-world dodgeball games...

Anyway, thanks for the great review. And thanks for reminding us once again that a game review need not be an endorsement of said game (something inexplciably forgotten at times). After all: "Do not buy this game!" (or at least, "Meh") is equally as important as "Buy this game, now!", lol.

DAMN...

Obscurity

@ San_Andreas_666: Glad you enjoyed the review. I have a few more sort of obscure Game Boy titles I hope to review in the future.

@ retroyoshi: You made some well thought out observations. Yeah, it certainly does suck when games set you up to fail. Also, thanks for the props about the review. I try to maintain a good balance in the points that I highlight about games. Like you said, it's good to review the not-so-good games too. I don't want my blog to be just another pop-up ad.

@ chambos: You mom forbade you to play games like Penguin Wars, or did she just have a thing against video games for fear that it would "rot your brain out"?

My dad was sort of the latter-- I remember so many "battles" about just trying to get even a cheap $20 on the PlayStation. He thought that I should play my same 3 games for a whole year and then maybe get a new game. So old fashioned.

My kind of game.

It doesn't help that the GB version ran like garbage. But, I did some research and checked out the MSX version of the game (and maybe the arcade version? I want that version!) and the game looks much cooler. And from what I saw, this game WAS, in fact, VERY popular with the Japanese audience. Hell, an adaptation of Penguin-kun was made for iPod/iPhone! It would be challenging to make this game for Flash.....yeeees.....

Thank you

@ Black_Widow_Spider: Hey, the weekend was nice. this past Friday marked my last Friday being without work. So I made sure to spend a lot of time with my GF over the weekend. On Saturday went to a big shopping mall and later saw "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs". Great movie!

Now, I'm just trying to get adjusted to the new job and learn the ropes.

@ Dioxel-GunArson: Sure thing buddy. This games was folks just like you :-)

@ MAConcep00: Cool man! I'll have to check out the MSX version myself.

I'm glad

You had a great weekend. I wanted to take the kids to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs this past weekend, but we went apple picking instead. This weekend we have a Birthday party. So how do you like the new job?

What sucks about todays "non-hits"...

Is that the bulk of them aren't wacky "whatever the hell I'm playing, I think I like it" classics like this. Most of them are either digitized abortions created to market hollywood or games you want to scream at after realizing you'll never get that initial 30 minutes of your life back.

Sorry that I've been behind on reading... It's been days since I could even get on a computer. But yes, I'm still alive... I think (?)